Sunday 18 August 2013

Classic Restoration E W Hannington


I purchased this old 'Barn find' frame a little while back, to be honest I didn't really know what I was buying as the Ebayer was into agricultural machinery. Anyway a deal was done and I bought it. The old boy said there were some wheels with it, he dug out a mismatched set of old sprints, the front an old Mailard large flange had no internals. Luckilly I had an old Mailard in my garage. Bolted to the frame was a worn Campagnolo headset, now bagged and stored. A campagnolo GS chainset that had laminated, that went on Ebay. and a set of early nutted 105 calipers and non aero levers. These were cleaned and polished and kept.
The frame was a 531 Professional E W Hannington, a builder better known for his racing trikes and tandems.
The frame has lovely shot in stays, Suntour vertical drop outs and weight saving cut outs in the fork crown, the cut outs are plugged with alloy discs to stop ingress.
When stripped down I found the rust treatable - just. However the 531 Pro is a delicate frame and will need care when being blasted and painted. Put it this way, although it's old and steel it's waaaay lighter than my modern Ti frame with carbon forks.
As for the kit, well it had Shimano brakes already, and I had some very nice barely used Shimano 600EX kit sitting about. So a Shimano build it was. I sourced some NOS Shimano down tube levers, a 600EX aero post, Stronglight SL headset, 3ttt bars for the stem I had and a repro Concor saddle, finally some clear Bennotto tape came up.
Today I loosely hung some parts on the frame to check for alignment, and all's  well, though the rear wheel just misses fouling the front mech; it's that tight even with the Conti Giro tubs fitted.
Trial fitting of parts

Now I have to get it painted and an aluminium plug made to cap the crown. Paint will be one of three colours, Eggshell Blue, Pastel Green or the palest  Pink. Decals can't be bought so I might just have the letters E.W.H made in Red White and Blue.
Looking forward to a ride on it to the Hub for coffee so I can sit back and admire.

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